No off switch: “Hyperconnectivity” on the rise

According to a new study, "hyperconnected" employees who increasingly juggle …

Many of us leave our day jobs at the office and come home to our families, prime time television, or possibly an hour or two of World of Warcraft. According to a new study from Interactive Data Corp. (IDC) and sponsored by Nortel, however, an emerging demographic of "hyperconnected" individuals in the workforce doesn't have an off switch. While these Internet-thirsty gadget hounds are a respectable minority right now, IDC says the need for connectivity is on the rise—and the enterprise needs to be ready. So do the psychiatrists.

Image credit: IDC

IDC's study covered 2,400 men and women across 17 countries in various industries, company size classes, and age segments. IDC defines a hyperconnected individual as "reasonably happy with their work/life balance, even though they use almost all devices and applications for both, and they are willing to communicate with work on vacation, in restaurants, from bed, and even in places of worship."

These individuals were found in all countries surveyed, though China and the US have the highest ratios. Banking and high-tech industries contained a higher concentration of hyperconnected individuals who are found most often in management positions, and 60 percent were under the age of 35. Hyperconnected individuals don't view themselves as early adopters of technology; their lifestyle simply seems normal.

While only 16 percent of IDC's survey respondents fit the criteria of a hyperconnected individual, 36 percent of respondents—the largest segment of the survey—were categorized as "increasingly connected." These individuals are moving up the connected ranks, using blogs and wikis in the workplace, as well as adopting multiple devices and applications to suit their work, personal, and communication needs. This places an increasingly mission-critical focus on the technology that these well-connected users demand.

Another notable aspect of this new hyperconnected demographic is the blurring of lines between devices used for work and play. Hyperconnected individuals are increasingly using their notebooks, mobile phones, text messaging, and social networking for both work and personal activities. This new desire for converging work and personal use on devices, of course, poses new problems in terms of support, security, and privacy. IT departments will need to find new solutions and perhaps tweak policies if they want to cater to the needs of hyperconnected employees.

If a constantly-connected workforce full of always-on employees is just over the horizon, though, the potential downfalls of hyperconnectivity beg to be reexamined. One study last August showed that e-mail stress is slowing down workers, while another earlier in 2007 showed that workers can take an average of 15 minutes to get back to the task they were doing after being interrupted by a phone calls, e-mail, or IMs. Intel's own Nathan Zeldes estimated last December that "information overload" can cost each knowledge worker up to eight hours each week.

A new breed of hyperconnected employee might impress potential employers with a smartphone in one hand, a notebook in the other, and a BlackBerry packed in the vacation bags. But humanity's limits may still enforce boundaries around these employees' true productivity.